Top U.S. skiers arrive

Press, 9 August 1982, Page 16

Top U.S. skiers arrive

By

TIM DUNBAR

Eight members of the United States A and B ski teams arrived in New Zealand yesterday in the middle of a Christchurch winter and immediately had to strip down to shirt sleeves. The Americans, among them some of the world's top women ski-racers, will spend the next two weeks in a “summer” training camp at Mount Hutt. That particular mountain will be familar for Tamara McKinney, Christin Cooper, Holly Flanders, and Cindy Oak who all trained and raced there three years ago. Mount Hutt skiers will remember the Miss McKinney of 1979 vintage for two

reasons — her outstanding form in winning the Europa F.I.S. slalom and her waistlength hair. The intervening three years have brought Miss McKinney, now aged 19, a World Cup giant slalom title and a rather drastic reduction in the length of her hair. “Last time would have been about the maximum. Now is the shortest I’ve had my hair since I was about six years old,” she said. .

Miss Cooper, aged 22, from Sun Valley, Idaho, was the outstanding North American ski-racer at the 1982 world alpine championships in Schladming. She picked up three medals, two silver and a bronze, and was also placed third over all on the

1981-82 World Cup circuit.

Making their first trip to Mount Hutt will be the other two women, Debbie Armstrong and Maria Maricich (who was to arrive the day after the others), and three young men, Hansi Standteiner, Mark Tache, and Mike Frost.

Mr John McMurtry, the women’s coach, said that'all the skiers were keen to get back on the snow. “It’s good not to have too long a break and you have great snow and great mountains here.”

They have not trained together as a team since March, but most members were on the snow in May and early June.

Mr McMurtry confirmed that the American skiers would race in the 1982 Europa F.I.S. series which still has two giant slaloms and two slaloms to go. “But I’m not sure when. We’ve only just heard the race schedule and will have to discuss it with the team.” The American contingent was preceded by a matter of only 15 hours by the Swiss men's downhill team, arguably the best in the world.

Among the members of the Swiss team were the two times World Cup downhill champion, Peter Mueller, whose old rival, Ken Read, of Canada, had won an international downhill at Mount Hutt the same day.